Disclaimer: If you recognise it, it isn't mine, if you don't, well that might not be mine either.
Salvation in the Devil's Triangle
Chapter 7: Of Course it's Halloween
The morning of Halloween dawned bright, though the event went unnoticed by the underwater inhabitants of the Skölm Institute of Magic. Alexander Grey rose apprehensively from his bed; he didn't have a good track record with Halloweens. His parents had died on Halloween, and for the past few years his life had been threatened on this particular day. Idly, he wondered if his luck would continue.
Alex dressed and made his way down to his practice session with Claire. The two had continued to bond while kicking the shit out of each other (though, Alex admitted, Claire did most of the ass kicking). His extra sessions with Claire had, additionally, helped him a lot in his defense class and he was no longer in danger of needing to repeat the course.
After they had showered, they made their way down to breakfast and to Alex's first surprise of the day: a reply from Remus.
Dear Harry,
I was very surprised to receive your letter, and even more surprised at the contents. I must say there was quite a fuss when you didn't return to Hogwarts this year and even more so when your whereabouts couldn't be found. I must say that I am quite relieved to hear that you are doing well, even if I don't know where you are. Rest assured, however, that I won't press you for information as I understand if you don't trust me yet.
About Sirius… I am unsure whether to believe his story or not, and I can tell by the wording in your letter that you also have your doubts, but I have looked into the matter. As a matter of fact, I am teaching at Hogwarts this year as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher so it was a simple matter to check up on the rat in question, unfortunately he seems to have gone missing. Sorry I couldn't give you better news.
Sincerely,
Remus Lupin
Alex was a bit bummed that the rat had gotten away, but the news was quickly sent to the back of his mind by the events of the day.
Claire had invited him to a party that was going on that evening and though he was apprehensive to be around so many people he didn't know, especially vampires, he didn't have a good enough excuse to get out of it, and it would afford him the opportunity to leave the school for the first time since arriving. Anxiousness aside, he was rather looking forward to an up close look at vampire culture. Claire claimed it would be boring and that she wanted to bring him since with his luck something interesting would happen. She would probably regret her words.
The school had the day off, the reason for this was that Halloween was a magically powerful day and much of the students and staff had been waiting for this day in order to perform certain magics. Alex himself had decided to try his first attempt at blood enchanting a living being. Ok, it was a plant but it's still alive and it made the magics complicated enough not having to factor in consciousness.
The point of the enchantment was to make the plant hostile against anyone but himself. In the future he hoped to use the enchantment on any plants he might grow so as they could protect themselves from theft, this first attempt, however, was on a simple vine trellis that he had bought from the herbology professor and Alex planned on having it grow along his balcony as part of his defense system.
Alex was tempted to get Claire to test his new vine protection, but decided that neither of the two outcomes would work in his favor. Either she would end up destroying the vines rendering them useless or she would be caught in his trap and take it out on him after he had set her free. In the end, he decided to just hope that it worked satisfactorily.
Alex's first attempt to get out of Claire's party had been that he had nothing to wear, but she had quickly decided that a shopping trip was needed, so that afternoon the pair swam to the surface and took a port-key to the magical district in New York, New York.
Alex quickly found out (after he had fallen on his face when they appeared by port-key and Claire got a laugh in at his expense) that Americans never did anything half assed, if they did it they did it bigger and better than ever before, though mainly bigger. The magical district looked much like the rest of the great muggle city with its great big skyscrapers and swarms of people. Fortunately, there weren't any cars so they didn't have to worry about getting run over.
Claire quickly led him into one of the huge buildings and he found himself in the largest department store he had ever seen (he later learned that the building was really only half the store, the other half being the skyscraper across the street). Alex also decided that he much preferred American fashion to British. Americans had been inspired by their muggle counterparts and though they still wore robes they seemed more functional and less gaudy.
Alex ended up liking what he found that he very nearly replaced his current wardrobe, as it was he bought several outfits. His new robes were back with little bits of red on some and a deep green on others. The main robe was more coat-like than normal so that it was tight about the torso and sleeves but billowed out at the waist to show the pants, Alex thought they gave him a slightly intimidating visage, especially with his hair and eyes, Claire agreed.
Alex stayed in one of his new outfits and had one of the shop employees shrink the rest of his purchases and then put those along with his original clothes in one of his pockets. The pair then left and Claire pulled out another port-key that would take them to the party which was to take place at some estate in New Zealand.
Alex was very glad, when he once again landed on his face, that there was only one other person around besides Claire to see it. The vampire who was responsible for greeting those that arrived by port-key smirked at the pair before welcoming them and showing them the path up to the estate.
The party was being hosted by the head family, the Gröthmers, of the vampire house of envy. The family was obviously wealthy and seemed to like to flaunt it. The mansion of the estate was done in a Victorian style in soft white and blue and from what he could see had immense gardens.
The entrance hall was done out with gold filigree as was the grand staircase that led to the upper floors. They were met at the door by another vampire and shown to the main ballroom, where the party had already begun, though maybe party wasn't the right word. Party implied fun, Claire had been right, this would be boring.
The party itself seemed to be a chance for the various clans of the various houses to do some political posturing and tensions were high. On a bright note, Alex was able to meet Claire's maker, Elizabella Anippe. Interesting fact about vampires: only some of them could make other vampires, these were called makers, also if a child was changed into a vampire during its first month alive it would age normally for a few decades before stopping, after one month and their age and development would be halted. Anyway, Elizabella seemed very kind and even invited Alex to go on vacation with their kiss over the winter holiday, Alex quickly accepted.
Later Claire would tell him that her maker wasn't usually that nice and that she had been the one who had made sure that Claire could fight. Alex was slightly intimidated by the woman after that.
The party dragged on lazily and Alex was starting to wonder if he would in fact be able to avoid his disastrous luck this year, but then he met Aidan Gröthmer, heir apparent to the Gröthmer family. Aidan was the type of vampire that looked down on all of the other races, especially mortals, and couldn't help but flaunt his superiority over Alex.
"I don't know what I would do if I were a lowly mortal, I might have to kill myself for being so pathetic."
"The world would be better off," Alex responded, but the vampire misunderstood his meaning.
"My thoughts exactly, the world would be much better off if all the mortals went and offed themselves."
"You misunderstand," Alex said, "I meant that the world could do without the likes of you." That certainly got his attention, along with a few of the vampires around.
"Excuse you, let me remind you that I am the heir to the Gröthmer family, and you are nothing but a lowly mortal, it would be like squashing a bug to kill you right now," The boy said, haughtily
"I think you'll find that this bug, as you say, has a trick or two up his sleeve that you would be hard put to contend with."
"Is that a challenge?" The vampire asked, his voice dripping with arrogance.
What the fuck, Alex though, this party was getting boring, might as well, "That's right." That certainly got the attention of most of the vampires in attendance. A lone mortal was going to fight one of the heirs on his home ground no less.
Alex was led down to a dungeon that the family used for sparing and began stretching and wishing he could find a way to conveniently carry has staff. As it was, Alex had one knife that he'd strapped to his lower back which he drew with his left hand and swung experimentally. Alex drew his wand with his right hand and took his place on the floor.
Aidan stood across from him with a massive broad sword that would have obviously been too heavy for him if he wasn't a vampire. As it was, Alex wasn't sure if the weapon was actually useful or just meant to intimidate him, with Aidan it could go either way.
One of the spectator vampires gave the starting signal and Alex quickly found that Aidan was actually proficient with his strange weapon, but that the long, wide strikes were rather easy to dodge, but made it rather hard to get a hit in; it was also capable of blocking magical attacks. This revelation made Alex come to the conclusion that he was going to try something a bit reckless.
Alex saw the strike coming, but didn't move to dodge, this time he brought up his seemingly puny knife and put all of his strength into a block, he was nearly thrown to the ground but he succeed in stopping the blade, and that gave him enough time to hit Aidan with a bone breaker in the left arm, which meant that the boy would be unable to use the blade. The block, however, had completely worn him out and despite his broken arm Aidan continued to dominate the fight.
Alex was finally able to get enough distance between them to change the fight into the realm of magic and shot of a bludgeoning hex, which was shielded. He sent another bone breaker which was dodged, but the follow up stunner hit its mark, unfortunately vampires had some resistance to magic and it would take more than one to actually bring the boy down, he was a bit lethargic in his movements now though.
Aidan attempted to counter with a banishing hex but he failed to get it off before his right arm was hit with another bone breaker and he dropped his wand.
"Do you yield?" Alex asked, knowing that the boy wouldn't.
"I would never…" Before the boy could finish Alex hit his legs with bone breakers and he fell to his knees, "It's just a flesh wound, I can still bite your bloody knees off you yellow bellied bastard." Alex, however, had, had enough and hit him with enough stunners to knock him out.
The rest of the party was a lot more interesting for Alex as he seemed to both gain and loose popularity. All of the vampires who thought the same way Aidan had now hated him, but everyone else was glad that someone had finally put the pompous ass in his place.